


The Assumption

by Flantastic



Series: The Surprises [1]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-11 02:28:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10452912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flantastic/pseuds/Flantastic
Summary: Unbonded Alpha James Bond would lead a pretty solitary life if it wasn't for his Beta friend Q.  They get on well and Q always knows the best restaurants.  However James soon learns that Q is full of surprises...





	

**Author's Note:**

> I finally dipped my toe into the wonderful world of Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics!
> 
> As with every fic, this story is set in my own personal sandpit so some of the rules might differ. I had fun with it though! x
> 
> There are three more stories to follow this one, all complete, which I'll post over the next couple of weeks.

The treadmill whirred quietly as James Bond ran, his thudding paces as regular as a metronome.

It wasn’t easy, being a double 0 agent at his age.

True, he was supremely fit for a man in his mid-forties and he didn’t kid himself that being an alpha wasn’t a large part of that.  The fact remained though that as he got older, he had to work bloody hard at keeping himself in tip top shape and running ten miles before breakfast was steadily getting harder.  He wasn’t one to back down however so he set his jaw and kept on running, steadfastly ignoring his aching joints and screaming calf muscles.   

He’d got back from America the night before.  It had been a hard mission and most people would have slept for a week after the month he’d had.  He wasn’t most people though and he was aware of the rumours that had begun to follow him around, so he’d elected to hit MI6’s gym instead.  He was getting old, the rumours said.  Only seven months to go before his first status review, they said.  Beginning at the age of forty six, all double O agents were required to undergo an annual series of tests designed to confirm their ongoing ability to perform well in the field.  Total retirement from MI6 wasn’t mandatory if the agent failed any of the tests but very few agents were able to stay active in the field past fifty.

James checked the display on the treadmill.  Another two miles to go.  He could do this.

He stared at the wall in front of him and turned his thoughts away from his state of health.  He thought instead of the previous evening.  He’d managed to get out of his debriefing a little past eight o’clock and had headed straight for Q Branch.

James didn’t have many friends and to be honest, with the exception of the CIA agent Felix Leiter, the ones that he did have all worked for MI6.  Q was the one that, if pressed, James would have to say he was closest to.  In the aftermath of the Skyfall mission, Q had quietly ingratiated himself into James’s life.  The young beta had been a constant; supporting him whilst on mission and being happy to spend time with him when he wasn’t.  That wasn’t to say the young man was a pushover.  He was just as likely to bawl James out for ruining his equipment as he was to laugh at one of his jokes.  James knew that the double 0 agents, almost all of them unmated alphas, could be intimidating.  It practically came with the job description but Q never shied away from standing up to him – to standing up to any of them – and he admired that about him.

They’d started having dinner together about six months previously and it turned out that Q was quite the gourmand, introducing James to some truly exceptional eateries.  The previous night Q had suggested a pop-up restaurant on the South Bank where they’d had a fantastic meal.  Afterwards they’d taken a walk up the riverside.  James had enjoyed himself immensely.  Q was good company and he’d felt the post-mission tension ease away as they’d wandered along the Thames.  It had been nice.  And James didn’t get a whole lot of ‘nice’ in his life.

He finished his run and hopped off the treadmill before walking over to the punch bag.  He’d barely gotten into his rhythm before his phone rang.  He gave the bag one last combination of half a dozen vicious blows before answering it, grabbing his water bottle and raising it to his mouth as he spoke.

“Bond.”

“J-James?”

The bottle barely brushed his lips before he lowered it, instantly forgotten.

“Q?  Are you OK?”

When he’d last seen the quartermaster, less than ten hours before, he’d been in high spirits.  Now he sounded shaky.  Wrecked.

“No.  Not really.” He huffed out a small laugh that was totally devoid of humour.  “I need some help.  Can you help me?  Please.”

James was already reaching for his sweatshirt, wallet and car keys.

“Of course.  Where are you?”

“I’m in my office but I need to get home.  Can you help me to get home please?”

James left the gym and strode towards the lift.

“Right away?  I’ll get my car and meet you in the…”

“No!”

He paused as Q’s exclamation cut him off.

“No?”

“No.  Please James.  I don’t think… I’m not sure I can.”  James wondered at the shaky breath he heard the other man take.  It sounded for all the world like he was trying not to cry.

“OK Q.  It’s OK.”  He turned around and headed for the stairwell.  Q-branch was quicker that way.  “Hold on and I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”  Wondering what the hell had happened to him, James began to jog.  Was it food poisoning?  They’d eaten different meals the previous evening but if it was that, the symptoms would have presented in the night, wouldn’t they?  Q wouldn’t have been so foolish as to come into work after puking his guts up half the night.

James entered Q-Branch and he was immediately met with an almost palpable atmosphere of tension.  He could see that Q’s office door was closed and he made a beeline for it.  R nervously tried to stop him by putting up her hand but he ignored her and went to open the door.  It was locked.  He tapped on it quietly and almost chuckled when he realised that, for all Q’s good-humoured griping about James’s poor manners, it was the first time he’d ever actually knocked on his door.

“Q?” He called through it quietly.  “It’s me.  Let me in.”

There was a pause before he heard the lock’s tumblers turn.  He waited for a second to see if Q would open the door but when he didn’t he turned the handle and went into the darkened room, closing the door firmly behind him.

The scent was what hit him first.  It was the sweet-spicy aroma of an omega in the early stages of heat.

Allowing scent to pervade in general society was no longer seen to be socially acceptable.  In the dark days of the gender caste system, when betas were kept in menial positions and omegas were treated as little more than chattel, scent was never masked.  As society advanced, body washes and perfumes were developed to suppress the natural body odour, allowing omegas and betas to contribute more fully.  These days, although prejudice still existed, it was slowly but surely being eradicated.

James was momentarily blindsided.  He’d always assumed Q was a beta.  He was almost as tall as James and was so confident and self-assured he’d never in a million years have him pegged as an omega.  He unconsciously took a deep breath and growled in appreciation at the warm, rich scent that filled the room.  He took an instinctive step forward before stopping at a pained whine from Q.

“Please don’t…”

Shaking himself, James focussed and pushed down his instinctive desire to take and claim.  Instead he slowly walked over to where Q had sunk to the floor and crouched down beside him.  Q was curled up on the carpet, half slumped against the wall.  He was trembling and his skin had a feverish glow.  He’d stripped off his cardigan and tie and was pulling at his shirt collar, his fingers failing to negotiate the buttons there.  He shivered as James reached out to stroke the hair from his sweating forehead.  He swallowed and spoke again.

“I’m sorry James.  I’m so sorry.  I wasn’t due for another ten days but it’s just hit me like a ton of bricks.  I don’t know what to do.  I can’t stay in Medical… I just can’t.”  The medical department had a couple of rooms set aside for emergencies like this but they were sterile and impersonal.  James had extracted a MI5 agent from an undercover mission gone wrong a few years back.  She’d been brought to Vauxhall for debriefing and promptly gone into a heat.  When he saw her again a week later and politely asked her how she’d been, her curt reply had been; ‘bloody awful’. James’s hand smoothed down over Q’s exposed neck to rest on the spot where it met his shoulder.  He was burning up.

“It’s OK,” James murmured.  “Let me take you home.  You’ll be safe there.”

Q nodded and licked his lips, trying to focus.  He tried to stand but his legs buckled half way and he fell straight back down onto his backside.  He keened; an uncontrolled instinctive whimper that would have mortified the man had he been in his usual in-control state.  James cursed quietly.  Q was much further gone than he had first thought.  How the hell he was still able to talk was beyond him.  He reached for his phone.  He needed assistance and ideally, he needed it from a female beta.  He knew just the woman.  The call was picked up on the second ring.

“James.  How lovely of you to call.  M and I were just discussing when you might to bother to…”

“Moneypenny.  I need your help.”

“Oh?”

“It’s Q.  I’m with him in his office.  I need to get him home.”

“What’s this?  Have you two finally decided to admit that you’re perfect for each other?” She laughed.  “Are you off for a long dirty weekend?”

“Eve, he’s gone into heat.”

She evidently realised the seriousness of Q’s predicament because her next words were devoid of all playfulness.

“Tell me what you need.”

Twenty minutes later, James sat in the back seat of a staff car with Eve at the wheel and Q laid across his lap.  Q was almost insensate now.  His skin was burning and he kept crying out.  Every sound he made felt like a pull to James’s gut.  He wondered if he should have just let Eve take Q home herself but the very thought of it made his alpha nature rise up.  He wouldn’t leave him.  Q was his friend.  He couldn’t leave him.  Q shifted again and whimpered.  His fingers pulled at his clothing weakly.  James gently held his wrists, stilling his restless motions, and stroked his hair.

“I know.  I know Tom,” He soothed, using his real name.  It was no time for titles.  This was just James helping his friend now.  Q tried to struggle, sweat and tears mingling on his cheeks. “You’ll be home soon.  You’ll be OK.”

James shivered slightly when the temperature of the car’s interior dropped.  Moneypenny had turned up the air-conditioning.  He looked up and saw her watching them in the rear view mirror.  He smiled his thanks and then looked back to Q as he shuddered.  James had only seen a male omega in heat once before and it was awful.  How the hell they endured this every three months he had no idea.

Male omegas were actually very rare, making up less than two percent of the population.  As such, they were generally considered to be the weakest of all the sex/genders.  Whereas female omegas went into heat on a monthly cycle and spent an average of just twelve hours in the grips of it, the cycle of a male omega was closer to every three months.  As a result, their heats were much more intense.  They could last for up to three or four days and for large periods of that time they would be semi-conscious.  James had been mated to an omega once but Vesper’s heats had been nothing like this.  Her temperature would rise (there was a reason it was referred to as ‘heat’ after all) and she would get the urge to have sex but it was more of an increased desire which became uncomfortable if not acted upon.  The man currently lying across him, trembling and sobbing quietly, looked as if he was in agony.  He shifted every few seconds, pulling at his clothing as if it pained him.

And his scent.  Sweet Jesus, his scent.

James had been half hard since walking into Q’s office and it was becoming more and more difficult for him to stay detached.  As he’d carried Q through his branch and down to the carpark, he’d become aware of how wet Q was by the glorious smell of him; the pheromones acting like the world’s most effective Viagra.  James had got them to the rendezvous point a few moments before Eve pulled up and he used the pause to hitch Q up in his arms.  Q’s head had lolled onto James’s shoulder and he’d instinctively dropped his head to breathe in near the scent gland in his neck.  He’d felt immediately guilty as Q had whimpered and bared his throat in an unconscious gesture of submission, as if James was going to claim him.  When he raised his head, he saw Moneypenny walking around the car to open the back door for them, a wry expression on her face; one part amusement and one part affection.

As they approached Q’s small house in Camden, Q’s struggling momentarily died down along with his temperature.  James wasn’t fooled though.  They could have as little as ten minutes before the next wave hit.

“Mmm.  James?”  Q’s voice sounded croaky and James wished he had some water to offer him.

“I’m here.  You OK?”

Q didn’t answer but struggled to sit up.

“Where are we?”

“Almost home.  Another five minutes.”

Q nodded and sat back, James’s arm still wrapped around him.  He relaxed into him and nodded again.

“Good.  That’s good.  I can feel it ramping up again though.  It won’t be long now.”

James glanced at Q as he closed his eyes and settled back.  How the fuck was he so calm?  He was effectively about to lose his mind again while simultaneously attracting every eligible alpha in the neighbourhood with the delicious pheromones he was giving off.  He was remarkable… His thought was interrupted by the car drawing to a halt.  Q reached forward for the door handle and James had to physically stop himself from reaching for his hips to help guide him out of the car.  He opened the door on his side and quickly rounded the vehicle, intent on following Q up the short flight of stairs to his front door.  Before he could go further than a couple of feet, Moneypenny stepped in front of him.  She handed him a large plain white paper bag.  James recognised it as coming from Medical.  He took it, thinking it was medication of some kind for Q.

“So, I’ll let M know.”

“Yeah, thanks.” James muttered, watching Q fumble in his laptop bag for his door keys.  He tried to side-step her but she neatly got in his way again.

“You’ll probably both be out of the office for what, a week?”

Q finally snagged his keys and cursed when they fell out of his hand onto the top step.

“I’ll...” James suddenly realised what she’d said.  He stopped staring at Q to glance at her.  “No, I’ll be back out in a few minutes.  I’m just going to see that he has everything he needs and then leave him to it.  Wait for me will you?”

She laughed and leaned in to speak as Q slowly crouched down to pick up his keys only to then realise he couldn’t actually get up again.

“I’m going back to the office now.” She said quietly.  “I shan’t be waiting for you but do me a favour James.  While you’re in there, gallantly making sure he has enough water and his favourite knotted dildo to hand, I want you to ask yourself one question.  Why did he call you?  Of all the people at MI6, why did he call the one unbonded alpha that he’s closer to than anyone else?”  She kissed his cheek and went back to the car.  James didn’t pause to watch her go but bolted up the stairs and carefully helped Q up to his feet.  The younger man unsteadily leant against the doorframe and laughed, holding his keys out to James.

“Would you?  I seem to be losing control again.”

James quickly unlocked the door and ushered Q inside.  Without thinking he immediately turned and bolted it shut, quite forgetting he’d just told Eve he wasn’t staying.  He turned back to see that Q had staggered through into the kitchen, pulling his shirt over his head as he walked.  He went straight to the sink and turned on the cold tap.  With no hesitation he stuck his head under it.  Standing again, he shivered as the cold water ran from his soaking hair down his naked torso in rivulets.

“This is the worse bit.” He said, running his finger through his wet hair.  “I hate this, even more than losing my mind, I hate this sensation of _burning_.”  He turned around and saw James staring at him, open mouthed.  He immediately lowered his arms and wrapped them around his chest.  “Sorry James.  I shouldn’t have stripped off in front of you.  I’ll get myself off to bed.  You can show yourself out.  Thanks for…”

“Why me?”  James asked, hating the way his voice was dry and catching, despite the way his mouth was watering at the sight of Q half-undressed. “Why did you call me?”

Q seemed to stagger and he reached out to steady himself on the side of the sink.

“You’re my friend.  I thought…”

“You could have just rung Eve!”  James blurted out, the smell of the pheromones in the air suddenly seeming to increase exponentially and not just Q’s.  The feeling of arousal that James had been fighting ever since walking into Q’s office suddenly ramped up.  He could feel his knot starting to swell and the overwhelming desire to take and claim was making it difficult to think.  “She’s a beta!  She’s mated to Tanner!  Either one of them could have helped!  Even M’s mated!  He could have looked after you!  Any one of _them_ could have helped you without wanting to bloody well fuck you!”

James’s mouth snapped shut, disgusted with himself at what he’d just blurted out, and he took a step back.

“I’m sorry.  I should never have said that. That was completely uncalled for.  I’ll go.  I’ll just… I’m sorry.”

Looking back, James always thought that he might have made it all the way to the door at that moment had Q not made the noise he did.  The omega was trying to speak when he shuddered and cried out.  It was a mating call.  The needy call of a desperate animal.  He leant heavily against the kitchen worktop and clawed at his trousers as if they suddenly pained him, kicking off his shoes even as his knees started to buckle.  Without thinking James strode back over to him and batted his hands away, deftly undoing the button and drawing down the zip.  Hooking his thumbs into the waistband of his underpants, he pushed the whole lot down.  Q staggered and grabbed onto his shoulders as he struggled to step out of his clothing until he stood in just his socks.  James paused for a moment and stripped off his sweatshirt and vest before wrapping his arms around Q and hugging him tight.  He felt a flutter of satisfaction as Q immediately rested his head on his shoulder, James’s alpha pheromones helping to calm and reassure him.

They both moaned at the sensation and James buried his face into the crook of Q’s neck.  He licked the sweating skin he found there and began to speak into the heated flesh.

“I’m sorry, I can’t leave you. I can’t leave you.  I want to but I can’t.  I need you to let me stay.  Please say yes.  Please let me.”  He began kissing the omega’s long throat.  “I want you like nothing I’ve ever wanted before but you have to want this too.  I’ll go if you want to be alone but please say yes.”

He moaned as the younger man’s arms tightened around him and he felt his hard cock press into his leg, rutting against him.  Now they were touching, Q’s pheromones surrounded him like a miasma, every breath heady and arousing.

“Tell me yes.”  He pleaded as he ran his hands down Q’s naked back to his waist.  He wanted to drop them lower, to slip his fingers between Q’s naked buttocks and into the slick hole he knew was nestling there.

Q pulled away so he could look James in the eye and smiled.  His eyes were hazy and lust-drunk.

“Yes.  Please stay James.”

 

~00Q~

 

James stood by the bed and slipped off his underpants.

Q was at the peak of another wave.  The one in the car had seemed bad enough but now he was actually sobbing.  He was lying on his front, trying to get his knees in under himself so he could present himself to James but he was trembling too badly.  Unable to co-ordinate his limbs, he looked up at James in distress.  A high-pitched whine escaped him which almost set James’s teeth on edge.  The mating call again.  Clearer than before and a hundred times more heart-wrenching.  Vesper had called couple of times during their short, tempestuous affair but never like this.  This was like a low blow and it physically pained James to not immediately go to Q and lie with him.

Instead he took his wallet out of his discarded sweatpants to search for a condom.  He was never so glad that he always carried them.  Hurriedly extracting one and tearing open the packet, he rolled it on.  His hands were shaking but he made himself make sure it was on securely before trusting himself to go near Q.  Once he was happy the latex was in place, he knelt on the bed and placed a hand on Q’s trembling back.

“Easy,” he soothed.  “Easy…”

He lay down beside Q and tugged him towards him until he was spooning him.  Q immediately reached behind and tried to grab James’s cock, intent on impaling himself on it.  To distract him, James kissed Q’s shoulder and slipped two fingers into his warm, wet heat.  Q sobbed; part pleasure, part frustration.

“Let me do this for you properly,” James kissed his shoulder again. “Let me make this good for you.” He’d heard too many stories of male omegas being hurt during their heat by overzealous alphas.  James was determined it wouldn’t be like that for Q despite the fact he was almost gritting his teeth in his effort to not just overpower the younger man.  He wriggled his fingers and then twisted them, searching out the small bundle of nerves within.  Q called again but this time it was a more positive tone.  No longer of craving but of acceptance.  He moved his head back and twisted, exposing his neck and his scent gland which lay just above his collar bone.  His hips shifted with every caress of James’s fingers.  James instinctively dropped his head forward and licked over the offered gland.  It would have been so easy to just bite.

Children’s fairy tales would tell you that a bite to the neck meant instant mating for life.  It didn’t work like that exactly.  A bite could serve as a solid foundation to a mating bond but nothing more.  It began the process of making two people biologically codependent on each other but there had to be prolonged physical contact and an emotional connection there too to really make it work.   James licked the skin again.  It would be so easy to just close his teeth and worry the flesh between them but he resisted.  Helping a friend through a heat was one thing but trying to instigate a mating bond without knowing if the other wanted it?  That was too close to sexual dominance for James’s liking.

Too tempted in that position, James removed his fingers and slid his cock into Q’s body.  The younger man cried out in relief as James began to rock into him.  Once he was sure Q was impaled he rolled them until Q was on top of him.  With one hand he steadied his hip and with the other he carefully gripped Q’s neck.  He squeezed his throat gently, hoping that the pressure would assuage Q’s desire to be bitten.  It worked and Q went limp like a rag doll, spreading his legs to allow James greater access.  He threw his arms up over his head and grabbed onto the headboard as James dug his heels into the bed and fucked up into him.  James grunted as he felt his knot begin to swell.  When it caught on the rim of Q’s entrance he tightened his grip on his hip and forced it in.

James’s first orgasm hit him like a ten tonne truck, temporarily robbing him of his senses.  He shuddered and turned his face into Q’s armpit and breathed in deeply, wallowing in the sweat of the man.  He ran his hand over his flat belly, through the splashes of Q’s come until he found his cock.  He cupped his genitals and, reaching down, ran a finger over the taut skin where their bodies joined.

 

~00Q~

 

Despite having lived a life most people could only dream of, James had never experienced anything quite as wonderful as being with a male omega during heat.   Several times over the following days he wondered if the sense of fulfilment he felt every time he pinned Q and mounted him was purely due to his gender.  He’d had three condoms in his wallet, the kind specially designed to cope with an alpha’s knot, but they were gone within the first couple of hours.  He was just beginning to wonder if he had it in him to leave Q for the ten minutes necessary to dash to the local chemist when he remembered the bag Moneypenny had handed him.  In it there were several multipacks of energy bars and condoms.  Dozens and dozens of condoms.  Taking the whole lot to Q’s bedroom, where the young man was beginning to call for him again, he put them to good use.

The final time they knotted Q initiated it.  Heats were notoriously difficult for male omegas but nobody gave much thought to the poor alpha trying to keep up with them, James mused afterwards.  He’d been half-asleep, propped up on half a dozen pillows when Q had climbed into his lap.  He’d barely had time to slip on another condom before the omega was sinking down onto him again, a pained whine escaping him.  James fought every instinct he had to stop himself from rolling them and bucking his hips.  Instead he rested his hands under Q’s ribs and supported him as he slowly rocked.  Despite James’s best efforts to restrain himself, Q must have been sore after three days of near-constant knotting.  After they both came one last time Q slumped forward, already dozing.  Once James’s knot had faded and they were able to uncouple, James laid his friend flat to rest.  He was cool to the touch and fast asleep.  James watched him for almost an hour before succumbing to his own exhaustion.

When he finally awoke and staggered to the bathroom to piss, James found a bottle of intimate wash by the sink so he drew a bath and carried the exhausted Q to it.  As he gently washed him, using a soft flannel, Q took his hand.

“Thank you,” he murmured.

James smiled.  He felt good.  Better than he had done in years.  He soaped up the flannel and wiped Q’s neck with it.  The skin there was mottled with love bites, everywhere except over the scent gland.  Q raised a hand and James watched as his clever fingers skittered over the unmarked skin

“Why didn’t you claim me?  After all that.  Most alphas would have.” Q asked quietly.  James fiddled with the cloth.

“Then I guess I’m not like most alphas.  Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to.  Fuck, did I.  What we did… I’ve never felt anything like that… I loved Vesper, I really did… but our chemistry… it was nothing like what I’ve just experienced with you.”

“So why not then?” Q’s eyes were hooded but James saw he was watching him intently.

“Because you’re my friend and I care about you.  I needed to know it was what you wanted.  And not just as a reaction to the hormones firing up your blood.  I didn’t want to take anything you didn’t want to willingly give me.”

Q smiled and reached up, stroking his cheek.

“I think I would have been OK with it.  That night.  The night you got back and we went out to dinner.  I wanted to kiss you.”

James smiled back, a warm feeling blooming in his chest.

“Oh?”

“It was when we were standing on the Millennium Bridge.  You were leaning on the railings and looking out at the water.  You looked so relaxed.  I don’t think I’d ever seen you like that before.  I had a sudden crazy desire to snog the life out of you.”

James chuckled and tenderly wiped Q’s face.

“No wonder you called me when your heat struck early.  I think your hormones might have been trying to tell you something!”

Q laughed and sighed, closing his eyes.

“Thank you for… you know.”

“Shagging you silly?”

“For being there for me.  I haven’t shared a heat with anyone before.  It was… easier.”

James continued his ministrations in silence.  He tried to imagine Q’s previous heats.  The desperation to be filled and knotted growing with every minute.  He knew omegas sometimes relied on dildos to mimic the sensation.  The thought of Q trying to break each cycle with a lifeless piece of plastic… of having no-one to care for him.  He growled low in the back of his throat at the thought.

He raised Q’s fingers to his lips and kissed them softly.

“Never again.  Not if you don’t want to.” he said quietly.  “We don’t have to mate… if you don’t want me as your alpha I’d understand but please let me help you again.”

Q suddenly sat up in the bath and captured James’s lips with his own, snaking his fingers up through the short hairs at the back of his neck.  James dropped the cloth and wrapped his arms around him paying no attention to the water slopping over the edge of the tub and soaking his trousers.  When they eventually came up for air Q smiled and rubbed their noses together affectionately.

“I think we can work something out.”

As it turned out, James was on a mission, stuck somewhere in the arse-end of the world the next time Q went into heat.

But, oh, the time after that…

 

 

 


End file.
